Beantown’s long-suffering baseball fans were bawling and braying yesterday after the “Damn Yankees” bested their beloved Red Sox once again, by landing the best player in the game: Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez.

“It’s like having your best girl agree to marry you, finding out you can’t get married because your church won’t allow it, then watching her marry the guy you hate most in the world.”

The Boston Herald, whose front page yesterday read “Evil Empire Strikes Back,” called the Yanks’ deal to acquire A-Rod from the Texas Rangers – after Boston failed to do it in December – the Bombers’ “latest insult to the Red Sox’ pride.”

Boston-born Hollywood heartthrob Ben Affleck, who lost his Bronx-born fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, two months after the Bombers beat his beloved Sox in a heart-stopping, seven-game playoff series in October, was devastated by the Yankees’ deal.

“You know, George Steinbrenner is the center of evil in the universe,” Affleck said, referring to the Bombers’ principal owner.

“Eventually, they might be able to buy everybody. Why not?” said Affleck, before driving the pace car at the Daytona 500 in Florida.

Even President Bush, who was also at Daytona, weighed in.

“A-Rod’s a great player and the Yanks are going to be a heck of a team with him in the infield,” said Bush, who owned the Rangers before they signed Rodriguez.

The Red Sox have spent most of their history playing second fiddle to the Bronx Bombers, who have won 26 world championships since 1918 compared to none for the Sox.

Some attribute all of that bad luck to “the curse of the Bambino,” which stems from Boston’s fateful 1920 decision sell then-pitcher Babe Ruth to their American League arch-rivals in New York for a mere $100,000.

Sox fan Larry Bailey told the Herald, “We’re going to miss out on the two greatest home run hitters of all time.” A-Rod, at 28, is the youngest player ever to reach 300 career home runs.

In December, the Sox attempted to trade with the Rangers for Rodriguez, but the deal was squelched at the last minute by the players union, which objected to A-Rod effectively taking a pay cut.

Rodriguez then was expected to stay in Texas – he even was named captain of the team several weeks ago – but the Yankees swooped in over the weekend to cut a deal that will have A-Rod playing third base next to his close pal, shortstop Derek Jeter.

The deal is expected to be approved by the commissioner of baseball today.

“As a Red Sox fan, I hate the Yankees, I have always hated the Yankees, and now I’m going to hate them even more,” said Jim Orrico, 69, a retiree from Westport, Conn.

“I’m almost at the point where I’m fed up with baseball.”

Orrico said he is appalled at the money Rodriguez is getting. He has eight years left on a 10-year, $252 million contract

“The big money is ruining the game,” Orrico said.

His son Chris, 37, a computer salesman from Fairfield, agreed, saying, “I think it’s just so typical of the illness that plagues this whole country . . . it’s just money, money, money.”

Edward Cossette, 39, who runs a Red Sox-oriented Web site called bambinoscurse.com from his Palmyra, Va., home, said that when he heard about the deal, “My initial reaction was, ‘Jesus, God, here we go again. New York always wins.’ “

Nick Kurzon, a filmmaker, said, “Things were going so well. Now it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, we get screwed again.’ ”